The present invention is related to the field of sewage collection and treatment. A network of controllable sewage sumps having pumps and level detection equipment permits controlled flow of sewage to a central treatment facility.
Most municipal sewage and wastewater collection and treatment systems comprise direct connections between residences and office/industrial buildings and a sewage collection pipeline that feeds into a main pipeline. The main pipeline enters a sewage treatment facility and the sewage carried therein is dispersed to treatment tanks. Commonly, the treatment facility must absorb the raw sewage as it is produced, which presents a flow rate that changes drastically during a typical day. Early in the morning there is a peak flow into the sewage system as the population arises from sleep and prepares for work and school. Flow rates decrease and level off through the daytime hours, only to increase again during the evening hours. Then, overnight, flow rates may drop to a nearly quiescent level.
In the future, it will become desirable to construct more efficient waste treatment facilities. One way to improve efficiency is to control the sewage flow throughout the network of sewage pipelines that feed into a waste treatment facility. When sewage flows can be reliably controlled in a system, it will not be necessary to construct and operate treatment facilities that must have sufficient capacity to handle the present peak input, which only occurs for a few short hours in the morning and evening. Such a system leaves idle capacity unused for most of the midday and overnight. A controlled system would deliver sewage to a treatment facility at a more consistent rate of flow lacking the peaks and lulls of a passive system.
The present invention is a controllable flow sewage system. The system comprises a plurality of computer controllable sewage sumps. Each sump contains a pump that moves sewage from the sump through an outlet pipe that is connected to a sewage collection line. The pump in each sewage sump is controlled by computer. The computer controller of one sump is linked to the computer controllers of the other constituent sumps in the system so that system wide sewage flow control may be achieved. Individual sewage sumps have the capability to sense the level of sewage material in them such that each controller can determine when and at what flow rate the sump may pump sewage into the collection line.
In one embodiment of the invention, the individual sump controllers communicate in and comprise a non-hierarchical (peer-to-peer) network in which each sump has the capacity to track how many of its peers are pumping sewage into the system and at what rate. Individual sump controllers can adjust their operation according to a planned, programmable maximum load that the system can sustain at any one time. The controllers can be programmed to absorb the peak input flows and spread the pumping of sewage over the non-peak hours of operation.
In another embodiment of the invention, the system may be controlled by a single master controller that commands the individual sump controllers to pump sewage into the system as needed to make best use of system capacity and smooth the peaks and lulls of system flow that would otherwise take place in a passive system.